Chapter 137
Chapter 137
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 137
Chapter Title: How to Survive as the Second Son of a Magical Noble Family
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There was no sound from inside.
Just then, an alert from Elias came through the artifact enchanted with invisibility magic.
*Beep—*
“Why?”
[Luca! You done with your consultation?]
“Yeah.”
[Ah~ Got it. You coming now? Leo and Nark are here to see you too.]
She was asking if I was heading back to the dorm...
After going through an ordinary sparring match like everyone else, I couldn’t face Leo.
I was truly grateful that he’d helped me build my skills, but my fists thought differently from my reason.
It’d be better to calm my mind so my fists wouldn’t twitch at the sight of him, then express my thanks.
“Sorry, can’t make it. I’m visiting Hans right now.”
[Whaaat?!]
“Hanging up.”
*Knock knock—*
I knocked on the door again.
Truth be told, I was a bit hesitant.
He probably didn’t want to see my face right now.
‘I’ll knock a couple more times, and if there’s no answer, I’ll head out.’
To the club instead of the dorm.
The moment I pulled my hand away from the door, his voice came from inside.
[Come in.]
“......”
*Click—*
Hans was lying in bed. His friends sitting beside him froze and stared at me.
Honestly, in my opinion, it wasn’t bad enough to warrant hospitalization.
‘Well, still...’
He came here because he was hurting, right? I’d just have to accept that.
Plus, the reason I was fine was because Leo had relentlessly hammered my openings, so I’d gotten used to it. For a normal person, it was only natural to be laid up.
I pulled up a chair and sat down as I asked,
“Does it hurt a lot?”
“......”
Hans shrugged without answering. Whether from embarrassment or having nothing to say, he averted his gaze.
I pulled two vials of elixir from my bag and tossed them over. Hans caught them and eyed them suspiciously.
“...What’s this?”
“A get-well gift.”
“......”
He turned the vials over in his hands with a complicated expression.
“Wittelsbach medicine.”
“Yeah. You need to recover quick.”
“...Thanks, but I can’t take these. You bought them, so you drink them.”
Was it the price? He was rotting away in here, so it shouldn’t be an issue.
The conversation ahead might not go smoothly, so if things went south, I’d have to push harder. Better to use this buffer before ill feelings peaked.
I shook my head with a serious expression.
“I’ve got plenty already. Just take them, Hans.”
“......”
“I don’t want today’s sparring to mess up your first- and second-round exam scores.”
Hans nodded reluctantly.
I smiled and gestured.
“Drink them now. They’ll help you heal.”
“...Yeah, alright. Thanks.”
He didn’t want his pre-exam condition ruined either, apparently, because he downed the medicine with less hesitation than expected.
“How’s that? Feel better?”
“Yeah.”
Drink it after a spar, and your stamina’s fully back by the next day.
Maybe that’s why Leo went all out pounding my openings with that wooden sword.
I suppressed the instinctive tension in my fist again and opened my mouth.
“So...”
Was he still planning to challenge my grade evaluation?
And did he still harbor ill will toward me, planning to make a bigger issue out of it? I needed to find out.
With Pleroma and my brother already weighing on me, it was time to wrap up school business here.
The moment I crossed my arms and leaned back, he spoke first.
“You were good.”
I stared at him silently, and he looked away.
“...Honestly, I didn’t believe it. You hadn’t trained long, so it was natural to think you couldn’t do it... Plus, to me, it looked like you were just brute-forcing with mana capacity.”
He fixed his gaze on the blanket and continued, head bowed.
“But turns out my eyes were wrong. Thinking about the skills you showed today... The professor, Leo, and Yulia must’ve seen your true level in those 58 seconds.”
“......”
“...You probably already knew, but I proposed the spar to contest your grade. I thought it was too high for your skill and started thinking poorly of you. You knew all that... Sorry for making a fuss over nothing.”
He shrank further as he spoke.
Neat and tidy.
I figured no more trouble from him now.
I gave a suitable reply while looking at Hans, who still couldn’t meet my eyes.
“Long as you get it.”
He flinched at my words.
Of course there’d be guys like him.
A donation-admission bottom-of-the-class student suddenly scoring 1+? With 1,000 students, I hadn’t expected all 1,000 to buy it.
I was just grateful for the tough ones like him. They’d given me the stage to prove it.
Hans lifted his head slightly to look at me.
He hesitated before speaking.
“Thanks.”
“No big deal. Not many friends admit it as straightforwardly as you. Honestly, hearing you say that lightens my load too.”
And thanks to you, I racked up 120 points.
I flashed a friendly smile. Hans rolled his eyes in panic, clamped his mouth shut, and bowed his head.
The moment I found his reaction odd, crisp white text appeared before my eyes.
*Ding—!*
Favorability +7
I nearly choked.
‘Hold on... He’s giving out 7 points just like that? For real?’
I opened the favorability window.
Hans Frich
Favorability +5* [攻略 Possible (Stage 3/5)]
What’s with slyly popping up “攻略 possible”?
It even felt like new features were added?
The moment I scowled at the thought, that part vanished from view.
“......”
If you’re gonna be considerate, just don’t show it at all. And does this thing have a mind of its own?
‘Show it again.’
Gotta check out the new function first.
I stared at the reappearing text, and a new window popped up.
Stage 3: Better friend than expected
‘So that’s how he sees me now.’
Not bad.
Like a trial version of insight ability. Nice.
No reason to turn down info on me.
I pulled out the gentle tone I didn’t even use on friends and spoke to Hans.
“Guess we’re done talking? Don’t dwell on it—focus on recovering. Exam’s in three days.”
“...Yeah.”
I nodded vaguely and stood.
“I’m heading out. Club time soon.”
“Lucas.”
“Hm?”
I turned at the door, and after rolling his eyes for a while, he said,
“Thanks for today. I’ll cheer for your second exam.”
Hm.
For some reason, it really hit home that I was in high school.
I gave a light laugh in response.
“Yeah. You smash yours too.”
* * *
Just for properly accepting my greeting, another point went up.
‘Grateful, but at this rate, it’s getting scary.’
How does it climb so fast?
Maybe I picked up a point each from his friends too, because I’d already crossed 210 out of 300.
I kept dismissing Elias’s nonstop connection requests chiming in my ear as I listened to the club president.
“Now we’ll draw roles, but you know we’ve got fewer actors than other schools, right? Only eight of us, so some’ll have to double up.”
The president tapped the chalkboard enthusiastically with chalk.
Our club was assigning roles for the upcoming regular performance.
Weird timing, but the school promoted club activities hard, advertising them as good for students’ mental health.
I’d only suspected it before, but after that Imperial Newspaper editorial praising the Imperial Second Academy’s student welfare, I was convinced.
‘They must really hate the backlash.’
Of course, thanks to it, a stage was set—another opportunity to farm favorability. Welcome news.
‘Gotta level up the Charm trait ASAP.’
Only three days in, but my brother wasn’t the type to sit still.
Given his pathological perfectionism, he’d surely considered something like this happening.
‘My guess is he’ll fake another murder to invalidate the autopsy results or something.’
I’d counter with Nikolaus for that, but better to reveal such a good card later.
With no telling how things might spread, boosting public favorability massively was key so they wouldn’t buy my brother’s nonsense.
Plus, if something happened that money alone couldn’t fix, I’d rewind time for the advantage, so the Retry trait needed leveling too.
Lost in calculations and half-listening, the president suddenly clapped.
“Alright, first up—who’s doing Rosalind~?”
No one raised a hand.
The play we’d chosen was Shakespeare’s *As You Like It*.
And that role was one of the leads worth calling such.
Most lines, heaviest weight—no wonder everyone was eyeing each other.
‘After a semester in the club, some probably joined without dreaming of leads.’
I propped my chin, staring bored at the board, when the president pointed at me with sparkling eyes.
“Mr. Ascanien, want to do it?”
I briefly wondered if I’d heard right.
Rosalind? The name sounded male, but I’d read the script—she definitely wasn’t.
‘Hm...’
A bit startled at first, but calmly considering, it wasn’t a big issue.
For new humans without obvious sexual dimorphism—unlike old humans—it was standard to assign roles fitting acting styles.
So the president had likely pegged me for it due to my memorization skills, the role with the most lines.
But having lived overwhelmingly longer as an old human, I had no desire to take it.
“No. I’m new this semester, so better give it to someone else.”
“No need to worry about that! Skill’s all that matters~”
“No, really. I’ll take another role.”
The president nodded regretfully.
More importantly, something had been bugging me.
Adelbert hadn’t shown up to club.
I glanced around and asked,
“What about the friend who’s not here today? No role for them?”
“Oh, we sent a letter about assigning roles, but they didn’t come. They really needed to be here today...”
The president narrowed her eyes in distress, then beckoned a first-year.
“Daniela, you’re in the same class, right? Can you go tell them now?”
“Uh... That person hasn’t shown up to class for two days either.”
She’d just called a classmate ‘that person’?
And Adelbert was a grade-skipper, a year older too. Impressive.
‘Though earlier it looked like he was in his seat.’
Too bad he didn’t come.
Convention was the no-show got the role everyone dodged.
As I scanned the roles on the board, the president called me cautiously.
“Mr. Ascanien, are you close with that junior by any chance?”
* * *
Probably singled me out because we shared the ruling family background.
We’d cross paths more in high society than regular nobles.
Since the president asked me to pass on the message, I came to the magic department dorm instead of staying for club.
‘Today’s basically a day of hunting people down.’
Earlier was decent favorability farming.
Hoping for the same now, but odds were high I’d get the cold shoulder.
Not that I cared.
Deliver the message, and I was free.
My role was already set.
‘A lead again, huh.’
Luckily, fewer lines than Rosalind.
Minimal prep time, and I could use the stage to build favorability, so I didn’t mind.
As expected, no one wanted the line-heavy Rosalind. Not finalized yet, but last check, it was the only open role.
*Knock knock—*
I knocked on Adelbert’s dorm door. Stood there a while, but no sound.
Focusing mana on my senses, I heard rustling inside.
*Knock knock—*
“Adel...”
When I knocked again, the door opened.
‘He opened it?’
Then Adelbert muttered with hollow eyes.
“...Senior.”
I stifled a hollow laugh for a moment. He looked completely like a wreck.
Unopened letters littered the floor by his feet. The drama club’s too.
‘No wonder he skipped when we were assigning roles.’
He must’ve checked Nikolaus’s letter, though...
It probably hadn’t helped.
Strict gag order on the crown prince’s life. Had been since enrollment.
So Nikolaus, an outsider, had advised without knowing Adelbert’s exact scores. Wouldn’t hit home much.
‘Not like he wrote a line hoping it would.’
But could I let this direct line to the emperor and crown prince slip?
My face wouldn’t work right now; better to set up a meet with Nikolaus.
“The club friend said you wouldn’t open up, but you did.”
“...Mana.”
Adelbert muttered.
Meaning he’d recognized me by amplifying his senses with mana, probably.
More importantly, the conversation was veering off.
His brain not turning? He just stood there staring into space.
“You gonna let me in?”
“Why’re you here?”
Adelbert asked weakly, like get on with it and go.
The 3+ shock must’ve hit hard.
‘Emotional swings are the last thing you need these days.’
Hope he’s taking the purified meds I supplied.
So thinking, I opened the window.
Adelbert Hohenzollern
Favorability -5* [攻略 Possible (Stage 1/5)]
Huh, this one’s a goldmine too. Room to grow.
Might as well check how he sees me.
‘Obviously “not-close senior” or whatever.’
Stage 1: Vampire
“......”
This bastard...
I couldn’t help but laugh in disbelief.
I glanced at my wristwatch.
Still 4 o’clock.
Training with Cherlingen at 6, then off to Bayern for dinner as usual at 7.
‘Two hours left.’
Seeing the letter he wrote to Nikolaus confirmed it.
The emperor pushing him toward Team 1 was likely for Elias, but he hadn’t mentioned Elias in the letter.
Communicating via Nikolaus and letters had limits for digging deeper into the emperor’s intentions.
And crucially, the next exam was in under three days.
Couldn’t let him mope and flunk. He needed to pass for richer info flow to the emperor.
So with time to spare, time to cure his apathy, escape that obnoxious Stage 1...
‘Gonna farm some favorability.’
First, need to get inside to talk.
I ignored it, so Adelbert tried closing the door.
I closed the window and grabbed it.
Adelbert sighed deeply and furrowed his brow.
“...I wanna rest now, senior. If you’ve got nothing to say...”
“No. You got the script last week, right? Checked the line count?”
“...Pardon? Yes.”
Adelbert narrowed his eyes and answered.
I smiled and said,
“Came to congratulate you early on landing Rosalind.”
He stared blankly, then gaped.
Success. Strongest reaction I’d seen yet.
I pushed past the silently shocked Adelbert into the room and locked the door.
“Shall we talk script?”
* * *